A teenager yesterday admitted landing a fatal punch on a leading cancer
specialist as an inquest heard nobody has been prosecuted over his death.

The 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted striking 68-year-old Anthony Owen in the face following a minor altercation outside the surgeon's £700,000 thatched home in Cheshire in March last year.

But prosecutors decided to take no further action after failing to find any evidence to challenge the teenager's version of events.

Devout Roman Catholic Dr Owen is thought to have fallen to the ground hitting the back of his head after being punched in the face by the youth.

The boy, who was 16 at the time, was later arrested and charged with manslaughter after handing himself in to police, the inquest heard.

But in August last year the Crown Prosecution Service announced that no-one was to face charges as the lack of independent witnesses meant they would be unable to challenge the suggestion that the punch had been thrown in self-defence.

Yesterday at an inquest at Warrington Coroner’s Court the teenager gave his version of events, insisting he had acted in self defence after fearing he was about to be attacked by Dr Owen.

He told the hearing that Dr Owen had challenged him for not having lights on his bicycle.

He told the court he had been "playing around" with friends on their bicycles, when Dr Owen came at him "aggressively".

He said: "I was with was on the handlebars of a mountain bike I was riding and [boy A] was on a racing bike.

"I saw a car stopping and starting in the distance, and as I got closer to a speed bump in the road the car approached as well.

"I knew I didn't have any lights on so I stopped near the kerb because I thought the car might hit me.

"Thinking the car would go round me, I had nowhere to move to and [boy A] put on the brakes and we nearly hit the car.

"A man got out of the car with one foot in and one out and was shouting at us."

He added: "I was so confused so I told the man to get back in his car and he was pointing and shouting so I just stood there. He then came around the car towards us.

"[Boy A] then ran away and the man came at me and I put my fist out because I thought he was going to attack me. I hit him on the left side of his cheek with my right hand. He then fell to the left side of the car and I heard a bang.”

He said he then cycled away in order to catch his friends up and did not think that Dr Owen was seriously injured until he saw a newspaper story about the incident.

He told his parents what had happened and handed himself into the police four days after Dr Owens’ death.

The doctor’s brother, Eoghan Owen described his brother as a man who did "not suffer fools gladly".

He explained: “He had very high standards and was exacting with everything he did. It wasn't good enough for things to just be okay, everything had to be perfect."

Pathologist Dr Christopher Johnson told the court he believed Dr Owen's cause of death was a single blunt force head injury consistent with a heavy fall onto the back of the head.

The court was also told that Dr Owen was obsessive about picking up litter and was clutching an empty soft drink can when his body was found.

Alan Southwood, a friend of Dr Owen, who had worked as his gardener for almost 30-years, said: "Kids would vandalise the house and use it as a den. Anthony would pop out and check on the house to make sure it was safe and sound.

"On one occasion, he followed trespassing children to their home and called the police," he added.

A written judgement from coroner Nicholas Rhienberg will be delivered at a later date.